Paul A. GriffinAssociate Dean / Professor of Management

Professor Paul Griffin is a leading international authority in accounting and financial information and disclosures. He has published over 50 articles in leading accounting and finance journals, five research monographs for the Financial Accounting Standards Board, and two case books on U.S. corporate financial reporting. His research has had a substantial impact on the profession. According to a study of influential articles, he is one of a small group whose articles are now “classics” in the field.

His recent publications in accounting and auditing focus on audit fee behavior, corporate governance under Sarbanes-Oxley, stock option compensation, and SEC reporting under Regulation FD. His current research projects examine relations between stock prices and greenhouse gas emissions and the informational role of short interest for corporate bond prices. In 2012, Professor Griffin will begin a three-year term as co-editor of Accounting Horizons.

Professor Paul Griffin has made a $25,000 pledge that, along with matching gifts, will provide scholarships and support to recruit talented individuals to the UC Davis Master of Professional Accountancy (MPAc) program.

Griffin has committed to match gifts at a 1:1 ratio up to $25,000 with the hope that it will inspire others to join the new MPAc Founders’ Fund and support students in the program.

UC Davis Graduate School of Management Paul Griffin is quoted in a story about how publicly traded companies have to start reporting if their products contain any amounts of four ‘conflict’ minerals (tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold) that are mined in parts of the world that support terrorism.

Amy Myers Jaffe and Paul Griffin of the UC Davis Graduate School of Management write about how investors are evaluating oil and gas companies. They discuss their study which examined how U.S. oil and gas company stock prices reacted to media coverage about the potential consequences of unburnable carbon for fossil-fuel companies.

Story cites two studies conducted by UC Davis Graduate School of Management Professor Paul Griffin. One study found a negative correlation between a company’s total emissions and its stock price. Another study found that a company’s share price typically receives a boost in the days following a sustainability related disclosure.

Amy Myers Jaffe, executive director of energy and sustainability for the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, writes about how high tech is bringing fundamental changes to energy systems. She cites research that she and Professor Paul Griffin conducted that contrary to belief that markets have not responded to the concept of unburnable carbon, scientific findings prompted investors in 63 of the United States’ largest oil companies to shed $27 billion in market capitalization.

Story about UC Davis research that found investors in U.S. oil and gas companies have not ignored science when considering whether a potential carbon asset bubble exists – a concern raised in recent media reports. Two of the study’s co-authors are Paul A. Griffin, a professor of management, and Amy Myers Jaffe, executive director of energy and sustainability, both of the UC Davis Graduate School of Management.

Story about UC Davis research that found investors in U.S. oil and gas companies have not ignored science when considering whether a potential carbon asset bubble exists – a concern raised in recent media reports. Two of the study’s co-authors are Paul A. Griffin, a professor of management, and Amy Myers Jaffe, executive director of energy and sustainability, both of the UC Davis Graduate School of Management.

Story about UC Davis research that found investors in U.S. oil and gas companies have not ignored science when considering whether a potential carbon asset bubble exists – a concern raised in recent media reports. Two of the study’s co-authors are Paul A. Griffin, a professor of management, and Amy Myers Jaffe, executive director of energy and sustainability, both of the UC Davis Graduate School of Management.

David Lont, a professor of accountancy at the University of Otago, is interviewed about a study that he was a co-author on that found investors in U.S. oil and gas companies have not ignored science when considering whether a potential carbon asset bubble exists – a concern raised in recent media reports. The study’s other co-authors include Paul A. Griffin, a professor of management, and Amy Myers Jaffe, executive director of energy and sustainability, both of the UC Davis Graduate School of Management.

Story about UC Davis research that found investors in U.S. oil and gas companies have not ignored science when considering whether a potential carbon asset bubble exists – a concern raised in recent media reports. Two of the study’s co-authors are Paul A. Griffin, a professor of management, and Amy Myers Jaffe, executive director of energy and sustainability, both of the UC Davis Graduate School of Management.

The article cites research that found investors in U.S. oil and gas companies have not ignored science when considering whether a potential carbon asset bubble exists – a concern raised in recent media reports. Two of the study’s co-authors are Paul A. Griffin, a professor of management, and Amy Myers Jaffe, executive director of energy and sustainability, both of the UC Davis Graduate School of Management.

Investors in U.S. oil and gas companies have not ignored the science when considering whether the potential carbon asset stock prices constitute a bubble — a concern raised in recent media reports, a new University of California, Davis, study suggests. The study found, instead, that investors’ rational expectations for future cash flows are based on all possible scenarios, not just particular negative ones that crop up in the media.

Amy Myers Jaffe, executive director of energy and sustainability at UC Davis, writes about a new study that she conducted with UC Davis Graduate School of Management Professor Paul A. Griffin, that indicates how predictions of a coming carbon asset bubble are overstated.

ry: London-based Diageo is among a growing number of companies reporting and working to reduce their carbon footprint. In its 2012 report to the Carbon Disclosure Project, Diageo cited Professor Paul Griffin’s research showing that “voluntary green disclosure decisions produced positive returns to shareholders.”

Starting January 1, New Securities and Exchange Commission rules, though under challenge by industry groups, are to require companies to start disclosing the use of certain conflict minerals. Professor Griffin comments on the affect that this will have on the price of affected goods as well as additional global implications.

Authors Paul Griffin and Yuan Sun demonstrate in their new paper a reliable association between companies’ CSR disclosure intensity and political interests. The authors work supports the notion that when the political interests of managers and stakeholders noticeably converge it encourages significantly higher voluntary CSR intensity.

“Especially for smaller public companies, if the firm has been active in disclosing corporate social responsibility measures and if the individuals in the company are politically active, there’s a good chance you will do better in the stock market if you invest in that company,” said Professor Paul Griffin.

Imagine finding a relationship between company managers’ political contributions, voluntary disclosure and increased shareholder value? The study by the University of California Davis’s research team led by Paul Griffin ‘show positive results by documenting a significant association between corporate political contributions and excess stock return’. Basically, Democratic managers of companies that contribute to Democratic political campaigns that voluntarily disclose their CSR activities enjoy a 4.5% positive mean excess return over a three-month period. The research

Companies that tout social responsibility and whose managers contribute to political action committees tend to provide higher returns to shareholders, suggests a new University of California, Davis, study.

All eyes are on the SEC this morning as the regulator holds a public meeting to vote on whether to adopt rules surrounding disclosure and reporting of conflict minerals under Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act. If approved, this rule could ignite more state regulation and require additional reporting from companies.

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted Wednesday to approve a rule requiring companies to disclose any conflict minerals they use to manufacture products, a measure that critics says will impose significant costs on companies. A recent study by the Graduate School of Management at the University of California at Davis says the rule will cost companies much more than regulators contend, reflecting the expense of complying and making annual disclosures.

You’ve heard of ‘blood diamonds.’ Add ‘blood smartphones’ and ‘blood oil’ to the list. The Securities and Exchange Commission voted Wednesday to finalize sweeping new rules that would effectively force companies to tell the world about their business in ‘conflict minerals’ with the Democratic Republic of the Congo or an adjoining country. This article cites Professor Paul Griffin’s latest research which suggests that this new disclosure requirement will potentially cost shareholders billions.

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted along party lines to adopt a rule requiring companies to trace and audit certain minerals as to their origination. If they come from the Congo, companies will have to submit a so-called ‘conflict minerals’ report. In this Forbes article, Professor Paul Griffin research on the matter reveals the difficulty of accurately tracking company’s supply chain and estimates that the cost to shareholders will reach the billions.

View video: Ahead of a Securities and Exchange Commission hearing on rules to require companies to disclose use of ‘conflict minerals,’ Prof. Paul Griffin’s study shows such disclosure could cost shareholders billions, much more than the SEC estimates.

The past year has witnessed an explosion of research supporting the Voluntary Disclosure Theory, which suggests that how much a company discloses is in direct correlation to investors’ premium, increased stock price, elevated consumer trust and a more powerful employer brand. According to a recent study by Professor Paul Griffin, it pays to be green. Griffin and his co-author, Yuan Sun of UC Berkeley, tracked stock prices of firms around the time these companies voluntarily issued press releases disclosing carbon emission information.

This study by Professor Paul Griffin and co-authors David H. Lont from the University of Otago and Yuan Sun from the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business documents that investors care about companies’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emission disclosures.

This paper identifies a precursory role of short sellers in conveying adverse information to the corporate bond market. Professor Paul Griffin and co-author Hyun A. Hong from the University of Memphis study this in two ways: by examining subsequent calendar month excess (risk-adjusted) bond returns for portfolios formed on the basis of high short interest in a prior month, and by analyzing abnormal short interest and daily bond returns around earnings announcements.

One of the longest serving faculty members, Professor Paul Griffin has been at the Graduate School of Management since 1981. He talks about teaching at the School, the student experience and how it translates to the business world. “Business is not about individual cultures and all that. It’s about economic growth and prosperity. That’s what we’re here for: to learn about that and understand how to make the world a better place.”

Professor Paul Griffin is a leading international authority in accounting and financial information and disclosures. In this blog, he discusses the practical applications of his recent study on environmental disclosures, advising executives how to leverage the data for maximum impact

Recently, I worked with Yuan Sun of UC Berkeley to release a study showing that companies that released information about their greenhouse gas emissions and carbon reduction strategies saw their stock values rise. We tracked stock prices of firms around the time these companies voluntarily issued press releases disclosing carbon emission information. In the days following the press releases, these companies experienced a significant increase in their stock price.

Paul Griffin, Professor of Management at the UC Davis GSM, is a leading international authority in accounting and financial information and disclosures. In this blog, he discusses the practical applications of his recent study on environmental disclosures, advising executives how to leverage the data for maximum impact

Recently, I worked with Yuan Sun of UC Berkeley to release a study showing that companies that released information about their greenhouse gas emissions and carbon reduction strategies saw their stock values rise. We tracked stock prices of firms around the time these companies voluntarily issued press releases disclosing carbon emission information. In the days following the press releases, these companies experienced a significant increase in their stock price.

This article reports on Paul Griffin’s recent study “Going Green: Market Reaction to CSR Newswire Releases” in which he found that share prices went up for companies that reported their greenhouse emissions reduction strategies.

“Companies should not be as reluctant as they have been to provide this information because we show that it can be shareholder-positive,” said Griffin. “Our message is that it pays to be green.”

This article explains the recent study “Going Green: Market Reaction to CSR Newswire Releases” by Professor Paul Griffin. “A lot of people were saying we need to engage in a climate change strategy,” said Griffin, “but there was little or no evidence that this was improving shareholder value. We wanted to look at whether there was an association between voluntary disclosure and shareholder price.”

This article puts Professor Paul Griffin’s study “Going Green: Market Reaction to CSR Newswire Releases” into a larger context of other research about how the market reacts to companies’ sustainability. “It’s a transparency issue,” said Griffin. “(On average), it’s ok to go ahead and do these and not be fearful the market will misinterpret them or take them the wrong way.”

Investors and stock analysts should keep an eye on unexplainable increases in companies’ auditors’ fees to avoid losing money in a future drop in stock prices at those companies.

“A rise in audit fees acts to deliver a precursory message about trouble within the company,” said Professor Paul Griffin. “Auditors’ fees, which are reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission and are public, will go up if the auditors are worried about irregularities that can cause them to have legal exposure.”

A pair of California business school researchers has found that companies that disclose greenhouse gas emissions enjoy an immediate rise in stock value and positive returns to shareholders.

“When a company makes a voluntary disclosure of this kind, it signals to the investment community that this is a firm that is environmentally responsible,” Paul Griffin of UC Davis told The Daily Climate, an environmental news source. “Investors are saying they would prefer to invest in an environmentally responsible firm.”

This article reports on Professor Paul Griffin’s study,”Going Green: Market Reaction to CSR Newswire Releases,” which examined stock prices of companies that publicized their strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The study found that after the announcements, companies had higher stock prices.

This article reports on Professor Paul Griffin’s recent study, “Going Green: Market Reaction to CSR Newswire releases,” which found that in the days after firms voluntarily released emission information, their stock prices increased significantly.

(Davis, CA) — A UC Davis study finds that it pays to be green, as companies that are open about their greenhouse gas emissions and carbon reduction strategies see stock values rise.

Graduate School of Management Professor Paul Griffin and his co-author, Yuan Sun of UC Berkeley, tracked stock prices of firms around the time these companies voluntarily issued press releases disclosing carbon emission information. In the days after the press releases were issued, the companies saw their stock prices increase significantly, Griffin and Sun found.

Savvy investors who follow short sellers to predict bearish news about a company’s stock — and sell their stocks in that company to avoid losses – should keep an eye on the company’s bonds as well, a new UC Davis study suggests.

Nestled among the world-renowned vineyards of the Napa Valley is The Pathway Home, an innovative therapeutic community for U.S. soldiers returning from the frontlines of Afghanistan and Iraq who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Insiders have reaped substantial profits from increased trading of a faltering company’s stock when the firm is renegotiating its debt, according to a recent study by Professor Paul Griffin and colleagues David Lont and Kate McClune of the University of Otago, New Zealand.

(Davis, CA) — The American Accounting Association has named Professor Paul Griffin as co‐editor of Accounting Horizons, one of the association’s two flagship academic journals.

Griffin will share the editorship with Professor Arnold Wright of Northeastern University. They will assume the posts in late spring 2012, when current co-editors Dana Hermanson and Terry Shevlin complete their three-year term.

Professor Paul Griffin’s ground-breaking research on insider trading suggest that U.S. companies gleaned almost $2 Billion in profits from buying and selling of stock in faltering companies. The joint-study was conducted with the University of Otago’s School of Business in New Zealand.

Professor Paul Griffin is cited in a discussion on the efficiency of company stock buybacks. Corporate executives and boards of directors can easily make their stock options more valuable without making any improvement to the business by executing buybacks, says Griffin.

Inside traders at public U.S. companies made nearly $2 billion from 2000 to 2007, according to the study led by Paul Griffin, a professor in UCD’s Graduate School of Management. The study tracked insider stock transactions that occurred during or near 1,718 first-time disclosures of debt covenant violations by companies. Statistical analysis showed that insiders sold stock one to two months ahead of market declines preceding a disclosure, and bought shares one to two months ahead of market recovery.

(Davis, CA) — Insiders have reaped substantial profits from increased trading of a faltering company’s stock when the firm is renegotiating its debt, according to a new study by GSM Professor Paul Griffin and David Lont of the University of Otago in New Zealand.

This study by Professor Paul Griffin examines the impact of the “free” climate change allowances under the proposed American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 on the balance sheets and income statements of companies in the S&P 500, estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to be as high as $700 billion over 2010-2019. Some observers contend that these allowances will generate “large windfall profits to various politically favored industries at the expense of U.S. consumers.”

Small investors could be big losers if a federal climate change plan known as cap and trade becomes law and accounting standards for carbon credits are not yet established, suggests a new study by Professor Paul Griffin.

(Davis, CA) — Small investors could be big losers if a greenhouse gas reduction plan known as cap and trade becomes law and accounting standards for carbon credits have not been established, according to a new study released today by a University of California, Davis, professor.

In an analysis of pending federal legislation and accounting practices, UC Davis management professor Paul Griffin determined that U.S. companies would receive up to $36 billion in climate change allowances next year under provisions of a bill the U.S. House of Representatives passed last year.

This study, by Professor Paul Griffin and co-authors David H. Lont from the University of Otago and Yuan Sun from UC Berkeley, finds that the agency problems of companies with high free cash flow (FCF) and low growth opportunities induce auditors of companies in the United States to raise audit fees to compensate for the additional effort. They also find that high FCF companies with high growth prospects have higher audit fees.

Companies that generate high levels of cash flow might appear to be a solid market investment. However, finance researchers have shown that when companies build up more cash flow than they need, errant managers tend to spend the excess unwisely, which can actually drain shareholder value.

Students in Professor Paul Griffin’s MBA elective on financial analysis and valuation recently presented their detailed reports on company value, issuing “buy” recommendations on a few gems whose potential Wall Street may not yet fully appreciate, perhaps because they has been unfairly trampled by negative sentiment.

In the midst of the financial crisis and taxpayer-funded bailouts of the likes of AIG, public outrage and government scrutiny over the pay packages of executives at companies receiving federal aid has reached new heights. Largely missing from the debate over executive compensation is the unintended consequence that accounting rules have on rewards in the form of stock buybacks.

This study, by Professor Paul Griffin and co-authors David H. Lont from the University of Otago and Yuan Sun from UC Berkeley, examines the association between overseas and New Zealand governance regulatory reforms and New Zealand companies’ audit and non-audit fees.

With all eyes on the $700 billion in bailout funds, some of the nation’s largest banks have received additional financial help thanks to a new tax policy quietly issued by the Treasury Department in September. Professor Paul Griffin an internationally recognized specialist in the areas of accounting, financial valuation and business taxation, has been called on to unravel the complex implications of the sweeping change, which gives substantial tax breaks to companies that acquire struggling banks hit hard by the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

While audit fees have gone up substantially in the U.S. since 2002 in response to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) and related regulations, it is unclear whether such reforms should have a major impact on audit markets in other countries. How have New Zealand audit firms fared in light of such regulatory initiatives? According to Professor Paul Griffin and his co-authors Yuan Sun and David Lont of the University of Otago, New Zealand, auditing firms reacted differently to the change by not raising their fees following the passage of SOX.

Professor Paul Griffin’s recent class on company valuation analysis posed a special challenge this year: how to value a company in tough economic times, including the impact of the subprime debt crisis. Despite the challenging market conditions, students spotlighted several companies believed to be significantly mispriced by equity investors.

Professor Paul Griffin and his coauthors David Lont and Yuan Sun of the School of Business, University Otago, Dunedin, recently presented their article “Corporate Governance and Audit Fees: Evidence of Countervailing Relations” at a joint symposium hosted by the Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics and Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University on January 4-5, 2008.

Public companies that have had auditors recently resign may not be a good stock investment. The stock prices of these companies dip by about three percentage points following the announcement of an auditor’s resignation, according to a study by Professor Paul Griffin and co-author David Lont of the University of Otago, New Zealand.

(Davis, CA) — The UC Davis Part-Time MBA program offered in Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area is ranked among the top 9% in the U.S., according to U.S. News & World Report’s latest graduate business school rankings.

At No. 29, this is the fourth consecutive year the UC Davis Part-Time MBA program is among the top AACSB International-accredited part-time MBA programs surveyed. This year, there were 323 part-time MBA programs surveyed.

(Davis, CA) — The UC Davis Graduate School of Management’s Full-Time MBA program is ranked among the premier business schools in the nation for the 20th consecutive year, according to U.S. News & World Report’s latest graduate business school rankings released today.

U.S. News’ latest ranking places the Full-Time MBA program at No. 48, placing it among the top 10% of the 464 Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International’s accredited full-time MBA programs surveyed.

(Davis, Calif.) – With a joint goal of speeding the transfer of new technologies from the laboratory to the commercial marketplace, the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories have announced a new partnership for researchers to develop their entrepreneurial skills.

What opportunities, decisions, events have shaped your professional life?

My career path has been a climb across a jungle gym rather than a tangent up a corporate ladder. As a child, I used to thumb through the three-inch JCPenney catalogue, picking out the professional women who I would grow to be. I wanted to rule the world from a corner office in a suit and heels. I wanted to shed my humble origins and become Corporate Barbie.

Agilent Technologies’ Electronic Measurement Group is a $3.6 billion business that over the past decade has seen a dramatic shift in its customer base from U.S., and Western European customers to predominantly Asia-based customers. Today, the majority of the division’s revenues are generated outside of the U.S., with an increasing concentration in China.